Discrimination at Apple Inc.
Select, research, and analyze a real organization (public, private, or non-profit). You may select an organization in which you have worked or have been a member.
Examine a problem or issue of concern within that organization. Be selective in choosing an issue or problem within an organization, as a lack of depth in the issue itself will not be an acceptable excuse for lack of depth in the analysis. The purpose of this CLA is to apply both what has been learned in the course as well as your own independent research to problems in an organization of your choice.
Focus on an issue or problem that the organization is facing and is relevant to the content of this course. It will likely take several reflection sessions to identify a problem or issue that can be clearly defined, is manageable in scope, and is relevant to the course, so start this CLA weeks before it is due.
Gather information while supplementing this information with data from the media, the organization's literature, and other secondary sources. You should identify a relatively recent problem to analyze (i.e., this should not be an historical account of a problem and the company's solution). You should focus your analysis by applying the concepts from the course. While it is acceptable to incorporate several concepts from the course, please aim for depth rather than breadth regarding the use of course concepts.
To meet these broad goals, answer the following questions in a 4 to 6 page APA formatted written report supported by at least three (3) academic sources:
1) What are the issues or problems facing the organization?
2) What theoretical concepts from this course can be applied to understand why this problem is occurring?
3) What recommendations can you offer to help improve organizational functioning?
Discrimination at Apple Inc.
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Discrimination at Apple Inc.
Over the years, Apple Inc. has become one of the best-performing companies globally in the 21st century despite being founded in the 20th century. One of the reasons that have prompted this company to have the highest performance while other companies have been falling is the services it has been offering the employees. For example, the management has been ensuring that it employs the best policies to produce the best quality products, maintaining a competitive advantage in the market. However, although it has maintained outstanding services in the market, the company still has some problems. One of the main problems this organization has been facing is a series of discrimination. Since discrimination is likely to affect the motivation of the employees in the company, their employees' turnover, and overall employees' productivity, the company should check measures to correct it while maintaining its dominance in the workplace. The organization can eliminate discrimination by creating platforms to report the cases, protecting the victim against perpetrators, and punishing the perpetrators.
Even though Apple Inc. has been having outstanding performance, some Apple workers have reported a series of discrimination, racism, and sexism. When I worked at the company between 2017 and 2022, some Apple workers complained about discrimination. For example, in 2021, there was a scenario where some activist employees planned to openly confront the company due to the workers who had gone public regarding how the company was treating them (Browning, 2021). This problem even escalated when one leader of the activist movement claimed that the company fired her as a result of Apple retaliating against her.
Furthermore, similar to other employees in the company who were being discriminated were looking for measures to manage the discrimination, the employees who were experiencing this discrimination set a platform where they could report the discrimination. For example, Janneke Parish, a former Apples Maps program manager, formed a group called #AppleToo, where the victims would air their complaints. By October 2021, the platform had already received more than 500 stories from former and current employees complaining of sexual harassment, verbal abuse, retaliation, and discrimination at the workplace. Moreover, this initiative exposed some allegations that despite these individuals sharing their issues with the management, they were left unattended (Anguiano, 2021). For example, an individual highlighted that an employee had an elevated position, and was using that position to harass the team members sexually and despite reporting no action was taken.
Normally, individuals could expect that Parish could be rewarded through measures such as a rise in pay or job promotion since she has helped the company to identify the instances of discrimination. However, rather than promoting her, she claims the company fired her in retaliation for forming this employee group (Al Jazeera, 2021). This reason shows that Apple Inc. was ready to manage discrimination since, rather than managing, it was silencing the individuals employing measures to expose it.
There were also other instances where some victims of the discrimination complained that the company was not showing goodwill in helping them to overcome the discrimination. For example, Barbara Dawn Underwood, an Apple retail employee working in Georgia, highlighted that she was a victim of sexual harassment and assault when a co-worker assaulted her. However, after reporting the case to the company expecting the company would help her, the company fired her as she was about to return to work after taking a leave. This injustice prompted her to sue Apple for $1.7 million, where she accused the company of firing her despite being a vict...